"You can't use this artifact to sell salt and make money—it would disrupt the market and cause many people to lose their jobs!"
Keqing looked at Nolan with a hint of nervousness.
An infinite supply of salt could indeed generate enormous wealth, but such an act would destabilize the current stable market environnt.
She didn't want to see Nolan doing sothing like that.
"Of course, I wouldn't do that. Selling salt is too much trouble anyway.
"Right now, I'm a major shareholder of the 'Sweet Flower rchant Association.' I already earn plenty of Mora effortlessly, and with Miss Ningguang guiding , making money is the least of my worries. I'm taking this cup purely for my collection."
Nolan shook his head, assuring her that he wouldn't misuse the "cup that always remains half-full of salt."
He thought about how, in the original story, Zhongli had sealed two artifacts in the depths of the Guyun Stone Forest's sea, likely to prevent their misuse and mitigate their impact on Teyvat.
"Good, then," Keqing said, breathing a small sigh of relief.
Since Nolan had promised not to misuse the artifact, she could trust him—his character was beyond reproach.
[Keqing Has Developed Good Feelings Toward You. Obtained 240 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.6 (100/600)]
Nolan put the artifact away and smiled at Keqing.
"Let's keep exploring this ruin for a while longer. Let's head deeper to see if there's anything else to discover."
Keqing didn't object. It was still early, and exploring the Salt God's ruins would broaden her experience.
During the Salt Calamity, the Saltfolk had desperately fled outward.
Thus, following the direction opposite to where the salt crystal statues faced should lead to the depths of the ruins.
Nolan also rembered from the original story that after the Traveler's group found the first artifact, they quickly discovered the second one.
As long as he paid attention, he was unlikely to miss it.
The ruins were characterized by a high concentration of salt, silence, and darkness.
The sound of their shoes against the stone floor was particularly distinct in such a quiet environnt. If an ordinary adventurer were here, they'd likely flee in terror after seeing the humanoid salt crystal statues.
Without so prior understanding of the place and strong abilities to rely on, even Nolan had to admit he'd feel scared.
The girl beside him had flowing purple hair that gently grazed her snow-white back. Her short skirt swayed ever so slightly with each step, her legs clad in form-fitting black silk tights.
Before long, the two entered another large room.
This room, like the previous one, had a stone table, but this ti, it held a stone rack. On the rack lay a stone ruler, as plain and unremarkable as the cup from earlier, save for a few decorative patterns.
"No way, is this another one?" Keqing asked, speechless at the familiarity of the scene.
"Yes, this ruler gives off the sa feeling as the cup. It's likely another artifact," Nolan said, his eyes lighting up. He had achieved his main goal for coming to the Salt God's ruins.
"In that case, you should take it too. Artifacts imbued with the Salt God's power could be dangerous in the wrong hands," Keqing said, crossing her arms thoughtfully.
"Don't worry, I'll keep it safe and ensure it's never misused." Nolan smiled as he stepped forward to pick up the stone ruler.
He recalled that this ruler's ability was to create countless salt crystals when plunged into the ground—far more powerful than the cup.
Should I test it? Nolan briefly considered trying it out.
"..."
In the end, he decided against it. His curiosity wasn't that overwhelming. The room was too small, and the growing salt crystals could easily make a ss of their clothes.
There would be ti to experint later.
Nolan stored the "salt crystal-producing ruler" in his mystical space and said to Keqing:
"My spiritual senses indicate that we're not far from the end of the ruins. That might be where the Salt God was assassinated by her own people. Let's continue and check it out."
"Alright, once we've finished exploring, we'll head back. I'll arrange for historians and archaeologists to study this place. After all, the Salt Nation was a civilization from the Archon War era.
"It's important to docunt the culture and history of the Salt Nation. That way, future history textbooks won't just skim over its existence."
Keqing believed that preserving the legacy of the Salt Nation was more aningful than acquiring two artifacts.
"That makes sense. From what I know, so descendants of the Saltfolk who survived the calamity still live in Liyue today. They don't know that the Salt God was betrayed and killed by her own people—they still believe it was the Geo Archon's doing.
"When the truth cos to light soday, it'll finally clear the Geo Archon's na," Nolan said, his tone contemplative.
The two eventually reached the deepest part of the ruins.
This was another spacious chamber, with piles of pristine white salt crystals lining the sides, leaving only the center clear.
In the middle of the room stood a salt crystal statue, its arms posed as if forcefully stabbing sothing forward.
Before it lay a small heap of salt crystals, motionless.
The ground surrounding the statue seed to radiate outward, as if from a massive explosion. Aside from the central pile of salt crystals, the rest had been scattered far and wide.
Around the room were several other statues, their poses suggesting they had been fleeing in terror from sothing.
At a glance, judging by the posture of the statues, it was clear that they had only just turned to flee when they were transford into salt crystals, their lives ending here in the forgotten depths of these ruins.
"It seems this must be the source of the Salt Disaster," Keqing remarked, gazing at the scene while thoughtfully stroking her fair chin.
The poses of these salt crystal statues were so distinct that it wasn't hard to deduce what had happened.
"Yes, if I'm not mistaken, the forr God of Salt has been reduced to that slightly peculiar pile of salt crystals in the center," Nolan said as he recalled the information from the original story.
Compared to the view on a screen back then, seeing it up close now, Nolan noticed that the salt crystals ford from the remains of the God of Salt seed purer and whiter than the ordinary salt crystals around them.
Hmm, considering it's the remains of a god, could it actually be so sort of rare treasure?
This thought crossed his mind, and he began to consider keeping this pile of salt as a collectible. After all, if it were left here, it might soday be kicked or scattered by soone. It would be better to take it back and enshrine it in his Wonderland, giving it so sort of continued purpose.
Nolan found the idea quite appealing.
"Turned into salt? Could it be that the body of the God of Salt was originally so sort of special elental spirit—like a salt spirit?" Keqing asked, her athyst eyes widening slightly in curiosity.
"A salt spirit? Does sothing like that even exist?" Nolan asked, feeling a bit skeptical.
"I don't know. This world is vast; strange creatures could exist anywhere," Keqing replied, shaking her head, indicating that she was only speculating.
"I see. In that case, I'll take these pristine salt crystals with . After all, it would be a pity if such a gentle and kind god were to pass away without even having a resting place," Nolan said, sounding righteous to conceal his slightly guilty conscience.
After all, the proper thing to do would have been to bury these salt crystals here, letting the remains of the god return to dust, as was customary. Collecting them as a treasure and even intending to use them felt sowhat disrespectful to the God of Salt.
Still, she had been gone for so many years. It wasn't as though she would have the chance to object.
"If these salt crystals are truly the remains of a god, they indeed hold imnse research value. But from the perspective of Liyue's traditions, it would count as desecrating the remains of the deceased, which isn't ideal.
"But as you said, if they were left here and ended up lost or used in experints, that wouldn't be right either. So, taking them for safekeeping sounds like a good idea," Keqing said, her thoughts aligning with Nolan's.
With Keqing's approval, Nolan no longer felt a trace of guilt. He retrieved a glass container from his Wonderland-Wonderland, where he neatly organized various items. The container, originally prepared by Sucrose for hydroponic experints to observe plant root growth, seed suitable for storing the salt crystals.
Using it to hold salt didn't seem like a problem.
After carefully collecting the pristine salt crystals ford from the God of Salt's remains, Nolan and Keqing continued to explore the farthest reaches of the ruins. Finding nothing else of note, they decided to return.
The journey out of the ruins went smoothly, with no interruptions.
Upon leaving the ruins, they encountered several water slis by the underground lake. A particularly large water sli spotted Nolan and Keqing and seed to mistake them for intruders. It summoned its smaller companions, bouncing over in an attempt to attack.
Having gained a lot from this trip, Nolan was in a good mood and decided not to capture them to make Sugar-Frosted Slis. He still wondered what kind of genius had thought to use slis as an ingredient.
The taste really isn't bad, though.
Although he didn't intend to turn them into dessert, leaving so many water slis here could pose a danger to future adventurers.
So, Nolan simply electrified the lake, instantly returning the slis to their elental forms.
[Defeated Powerful Enemies ×13, Obtained 5,726 Adventure EXP.]
Seeing that so many water slis only yielded a bit over five thousand Adventure EXP made it clear just how weak they were. Still, even scraps of at were better than nothing, and Adventure EXP offered on a silver platter couldn't be refused.
By the ti the two returned to the surface, it was already evening.
Having explored the ruins for several hours, the sky was darkening. They decided to hurry back to Liyue Harbor for dinner, rest, and to check what changes had occurred to the Wonderland after adding so many treasures.
---
Liyue Harbor, Wanmin Restaurant.
As night fell, lanterns lit up every household and street, marking the busiest ti of day for Liyue Harbor.
Particularly for this small, affordable restaurant.
Xiangling and Chef Mao were almost overwheld by the crowd, while Guoba—Xiangling's little orange bear and the manifestation of the Stove God—was running his stubby legs off trying to keep up with the orders!
Returning to Liyue Harbor just in ti for dinner, Keqing used the opportunity to thank Nolan for his help by inviting him to eat at Wanmin Restaurant.
Naturally, he gladly accepted.
Although Xiangling sotis ca up with bizarre new dishes, her culinary skills were undeniably exceptional. If not for the fact that soone at ho usually cooked for him, he wouldn't mind eating here every day.
---
After finishing dinner, Nolan strolled around the streets with Keqing under the pretense of helping digest the al.
Eventually, when they ran out of things to talk about, they parted ways.
Once alone, Nolan could no longer contain his eagerness and hurried back to his Wonderland to check for any changes.
---
First, he examined the artifact he had collected earlier—the mystical goblet. Not only had it expanded the space by 20 square ters, but it also introduced an extraordinary spatial characteristic:
[Successfully collected rare treasure "The Everlasting Goblet of Salt," granting the spatial characteristic Infinite: Within the "Golden Vault" space, all forms of energy—whether Elental energy, Adeptus energy, or Abyss energy—will increase by 0.1% daily. (Effect range can be freely designated.)]
This spatial characteristic lived up to the grandeur of an artifact.
The daily 0.1% energy growth might seem modest, but since there was no upper limit, this alone made the "Infinite" characteristic true to its na.
Moreover, the ability to designate the effective range freely eliminated any concerns about an oversaturation of elental energy making the space uninhabitable.
Nolan had already co up with one or two applications for this characteristic.
For instance, he could introduce a small amount of elental energy into an empty room. Over ti, as the energy thickened to the point of condensing into liquid or solid elental material, it could be harvested as rare elental resources for sale.
Alternatively, it could be reserved for personal use. With this spatial characteristic, the Wonderland had essentially beco an inexhaustible source of energy resources!
---
Next, he examined the second artifact, the asuring rod, which also expanded the space by 20 square ters and granted another impressive spatial characteristic:
[Successfully collected rare treasure "The Growing Salt Crystal Rod," granting the spatial characteristic Growth: Within the "Golden Vault" space, this characteristic can be applied to any plant, accelerating its growth by 1 to 100 tis (adjustable), while automatically replenishing necessary nutrients.]
This characteristic turned the Wonderland into a realm akin to the "spiritual fields" found in cultivation novels.
Accelerating growth rates, cultivating rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures—none of this was a problem anymore. Even delicate plants requiring special conditions could thrive effortlessly, as the space automatically supplented the required nutrients.
This characteristic could also be imnsely helpful to soone like Sucrose, who studied biological alchemy. Lisa, who often required elental plants for potion-making, would never lack materials again.
How exactly to utilize it, he decided, would be up to them to figure out.
Finally, there was the last item: the pure white salt crystals ford from the God of Salt's remains. As expected, they were extraordinary divine relics!
Perhaps due to their quantity, the crystals expanded the space by a full 30 square ters—more than either of the previous two artifacts.
However, the spatial characteristic they granted was a bit peculiar:
(End of Chapter)
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